


give me another reason

by weasleytook



Category: Revenge (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Prostitution, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Canon, Rentboys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-22
Updated: 2013-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-26 12:53:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Marco had taken the information about NolCorp having David Clarke as an investor to the Graysons back in 2006, what could have happened next? Nolan might have ended up on the streets after losing everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	give me another reason

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to galfridian for her beta help! <3

_2008_

Tuesdays are, by far, the worst night for business. Nolan does pretty well with picking up clients online so he spends less time on the street than other guys, but he’s still there every Tuesday without fail.

“Slow night, huh?”

Nolan leans against the wall outside the liquor store and shrugs before he responds, “For me. I’m sure you’ll do fine tonight. Your type always does.”

Alex has only been on the scene for two months, and he turned eighteen only a month before that. He’s young and beautiful and that type can do well even on a Tuesday night.

“Don’t knock yourself. You do just fine.”

Some weeks he feels like he’s getting too old for this game. He looks younger than his real age, and he’s in great shape, but he’s not one of the baby-faced youngsters that are so popular around here. It’s not like he has another choice. Marco went straight to the Graysons with the info about David Clarke being Nolcorp’s investor and Nolan lost everything. He wasn’t working the streets the next day, it had taken months to fall this far.

It happened by accident really. He left the shitty one room apartment he was in with his last hundred bucks to go get drunk in the nearest bar. But by the end of the night he was in the back alley blowing a stockbroker who slipped a hundred-dollar bill in his pocket before he left.

He would have done it for free, but that hundred bucks got him through the next week. And it was a job he could get where no one cared that he was _that_ Nolan Ross. The one whose name was now forever intertwined with a terrorist.

Nolan is considering calling it a night when a black Town Car with dark windows pulls up. He nods towards Alex signaling that he should take this one. Alex saunters towards the car, and Nolan tries to get a glimpse of the driver through the open window, but all he sees is the back of Alex’s head.

“Hey there. Oh. “ He overhears Alex greet the driver with some surprise, “I don’t think I’m what you’re looking for, sweetie. But how about my boy Travis back there? He plays for your team sometimes.”

Alex turns around and grins at Nolan, “This one is all yours, Trav.”

Nolan heads toward the car, and Alex gives him an encouraging pat on the ass as they walk past each other. He’s surprised to see that the driver is a young blonde woman. It’s not like they never get a woman around here looking for something, but it’s incredibly rare.

He’s even more shocked when she turns to face him. “Uhhhh, Amanda?”

“Finally.”

Nolan leans down so that the car window frames his head. “Finally what?”

“I’ve been looking all over for you, _Travis_.” She emphasizes his pseudonym and smirks at the end of it.

“What do you want?”

“I just want to talk. Get in the car, and we’ll talk.”

Two years ago, he would have given anything to have Amanda pull up in front of him and throw out a lifeline. He had lost everything to protect her, and she repaid him with complete silence. Nolan figures he doesn’t owe her anything.

He looks at her like he’s considering it and then shakes his head. “Ohhhhhh, so sorry, but I’m on the clock. Can’t give up any possible business just so we can have a little chat.”

“I’ll give you ten times whatever you’d normally earn on a busy night if you get in the car.”

“Done.”

Nolan jumps into the front seat and gives a quick nod to Alex before he rolls up the window.

“So, Travis, huh?”

“First guy I ever, you know. And it’s just for business. Didn’t want anyone connecting me with _that_ Nolan Ross.”

It hadn’t stopped a few from recognizing him over the years. Mostly guys who worked in the industry and remembered his face from before his name meant less than nothing. Hell, it had even been a turn on for a couple of them. 

“I know how you feel. It’s not Amanda anymore. It’s Emily. Emily Thorne.”

Nolan sinks into the seat with a grin. New hair, new name and she had somehow tracked him down. This was gonna be interesting.

*

They don’t talk on the entire ride to their destination even though there are a million things that Nolan wants to say.

She takes him to an apartment in Brooklyn. It’s small, clean and surprisingly modest, but it’s at least ten times bigger than the one room apartment he rents at a weekly rate.

“What happened? That bank account take a hit in this down economy?”

“It’s not for me. It’s for you.”

Nolan doesn’t speak right away. He walks around assessing the place and then stops and puts his hand on the back of the sofa. “Two bedrooms, fully furnished… So what is this? You’re swooping in to save me from my terrible life?”

“I’m not really in the habit of saving people.”

“Good. Because I wasn’t asking to be saved.”

Emily walks to the kitchen and quickly finds wine glasses and a bottle of wine that costs more than two months of Nolan’s rent. Even the kitchen is fully stocked and within moments, she’s handing him a glass of wine and asking him to sit with her at the table.

“Like I said, I’m not really into saving people. That’s up to you. This is just a way out. A helping hand.”

Nolan takes a large drink, and it goes down smooth, something you don’t get with the cheap shit he’s been drinking since he went broke. “Too bad you didn’t offer that hand a couple of years ago.”

She sighs and looks away from him for a moment, and he knows most people would apologize, but that doesn’t seem to be in her nature. When she looks back he detects a hint of regret, or something like it, in her eyes. 

“I – I couldn’t. I was involved in something really serious, and by the time I knew what had happened to you, I didn’t know where to find you.”

“Well, you’ve found me now. And you know I’m not stupid. All of this, it must come with a price. What do you want from me?”

“I need your help, and I need you to get your life together to do that. I need your knowledge and your skills. And I’m giving you at least two years to do it, maybe even three.”

He swirls the wine around in his glass and stares at it until it settles. He doesn’t want her to think he’s desperate. Desperation will just lead to her walking all over him. He takes another drink and then asks, “You have a plan?”

Emily places her hands on the table, and it’s as if she suddenly turns to steel right in front of him. “I’m going to clear my father’s name. And I’m going to destroy Victoria, Conrad and anyone else who was involved in this. I have a lot of resources, but I need someone with your abilities.”

“But why me specifically? You could find some other lackey with computer skills to do your bidding. Pity?”

“No, not pity. I want you because you’re the only person on earth besides me who wants my father’s name cleared. I know you’ll be loyal because I know what he meant to you. And I know you’ll take the risks that are necessary –”

“Because I have nothing left to lose.”

He sees it again, that tiny glimmer of regret in her expression as she nods her agreement. “Yes. Listen, I’m not going to force you into helping me, and I’m definitely not going to beg. I’m giving you this apartment and a bank account in which I will deposit enough to cover all your living expenses every month. The rest is your choice. Use it to rebuild your empire or continue being a hustler.”

“I prefer rent-boy. It sounds more European.”

She almost cracks a smile but not quite. “I’m not judging. If it hadn’t been for you showing up outside juvie that day and giving me all that you did, I might be in the same position you are. I understand, Nolan, I understand more than you know.”

He finishes off his wine and reaches for the bottle to pour himself some more. It all seems so simple. Take the apartment, take the money, and everything will fix itself. But nothing is ever that simple.

“And if I don’t want to help you?”

“The apartment is still yours. There’s a two year lease, but it can be extended later on. The allowance is yours for as long as you need it. I’ve left all the information on that in the desk drawer over there. I know it’s a lot to ask, and the people we’ll be dealing with are extremely dangerous, so take some time to think about it. I’ll leave you a phone number to contact me. Just let me know whether you’re in or out, whenever you’re ready.”

He looks down at the hem of his t-shirt where a few threads have come loose. It’s not just that the money is tempting, even though it is. It’s the thought of getting payback for what was done to him. The same people who ruined his life had ruined David and Amanda’s too.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Good.” 

She takes a slip of paper out of her purse and quickly writes on it before passing it over to him. It’s a phone number and the name Emily Thorne. Thinking of her as any name but Amanda is going to take some time getting used to, but he knows it is part of her plan.

Emily gathers her purse and leaves a set of keys on the table for him and heads towards the door. She’s not the girl he met back in 2002 anymore. That girl was so filled with anger and pain, she didn’t know how or where to direct it. She’s still filled with anger and pain, but it’s reigned in, calculated and cold but ready to attack when the time comes.  
  
It intrigues him. He’s pushed down his own anger so much that he wants to figure out how to put it to use like she has. Nolan almost says yes before she even walks out the door but stops himself and instead just nods curtly in her direction.

If there’s one skill he’s honed, it’s how not to look too desperate.

*

He takes one of the best showers he’s ever had and discovers that she’s even gone to the trouble of filling the closet with clothes that didn’t come from discount stores or charity. He decides he’s only going back to his old place to get the few things that mean anything to him, but the rest can go.

Nolan figures he’ll order some take-out and watch cable the rest of the night, since he had to pawn his TV for rent a year ago. But what really happens is he flops down on the bed and falls asleep. He only ever gets to sleep on a decent mattress when he has a customer with a hotel room who pays for the whole night. Usually it’s a beat up mattress on the floor, so this feels incredibly close to heaven.

He wakes up before the sun rises but, he doesn’t leave the bed. It’s been a long time since he’s been wrapped up in sheets with a thread count this high, and he plans to enjoy it.

He knows going back to the streets isn’t really an option. It hasn’t been terrible for him so far, a few creepers and some guys who like it a little too rough, but he knows he’s just been lucky. Most of the guys who have been around for a few years have been beaten up, and the really unlucky few have just disappeared.

So he has two choices: keep everything but stay out of Emily Thorne’s life or become her partner or sidekick or whatever it is she wants from him.

He thinks of David and his wrongful imprisonment, how his name was destroyed and how he died in prison. He remembers all the stories David told him of little Amanda and how innocent and full of love she once was. His own need for revenge comes third on his list of reasons to say yes.

So he dresses in the surprisingly preppy clothes she’s stocked the closet with and grabs his cheap prepaid cellphone out of his jeans. Emily answers on the third ring and there’s a weird pause after she answers as Nolan tries to find the words.

“Aman – I mean, Emily.”

“Nolan.”

“I’m in.”

*

_2011_

He’s not entirely sure how he made it into a Grayson charity event under his actual name. Even though he’s made it clear that he holds no grudges against the Graysons – a huge lie of course – he is still surprised they let him in. Maybe they just don’t expect a guy like him has a vengeful side.

So he tries not to worry about it or second guess his decision not to change his identity and instead looks for Emily somewhere in the crowd.

He senses her before he sees her, and he wonders if that’s weird considering how he’s only been around her a handful of times. But he feels someone’s arm graze the sleeve of his jacket, and he smiles. “Hello, Emily.”

“I see you got my invitation to the party.”

“I’m just surprised they haven’t thrown me overboard yet.”

Emily looks up at him and smiles and he knows she’s just doing her part to make it look like friendly small talk to any outside observers. “It’s because they think they have power over you. They decimated you once, and they can do it again.”

“Not this time.”

She nods and takes a sip of her champagne before continuing, “I’ve been reading a lot about your new company online. You’ve come really far since the last time I saw you.”

Nolan smiles at her this time because he understands she does not give compliments easily, and this is as close as he’s going to get to one.

“It’s not NolCorp, but it’s a start.”

“You sure you’re prepared for all of this?”

He smirks as he leans in to tap his glass against hers with a clink. “Ready when you are.”

Emily spies Ashley walking over so she smiles brightly and shakes Nolan’s hand. “So nice to meet you.”

Nolan smiles back as she lets go of his hand. “The pleasure was all mine, Miss Thorne.”

He watches the two women walk away and smirks smugly. It’s going to be one hell of a summer in the Hamptons.


End file.
